


Not Entirely Unexpected

by vials



Category: The Honourable Schoolboy - John Le Carré
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 11:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10875513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vials/pseuds/vials
Summary: It's not a Circus operation until you have a violent argument at the side of the road becausesomebodyhad to go and seriously assault someone.





	Not Entirely Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

> Could be seen as a sequel to [Red Flag](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10852302) and personally I wrote it with that in mind, but it's not necessary reading to understand this fic.

The panic had been the overwhelming feeling at the beginning, the sheer, undiluted panic that came from knowing that if he didn’t act fast, there was going to be some kind of international incident. Really, Guillam was lucky that nobody else got hurt, the way he had been driving. He didn’t think that he had had that many horns blasted at him in his life, and he was certain that he probably scared the hell out of a good dozen scooter riders in his efforts to get away from the scene of the crime.

When the adrenaline ran out he found he was shaking so hard that he had to pull over. Luckily by that point they were out of the way of the small towns and villages, on a stretch of road between two such places. The road was practically empty aside from the occasional scooter rider or person on foot, and they didn’t pay them any more attention than they had come to expect out in the middle of nowhere, for their foreign features and Guillam’s height. Guillam had intended to pretend to Fawn as well as anybody passing by that he was simply letting the engine cool down, and perhaps it wasn’t a bad idea after all, when Guillam thought about the humidity and how he had been treating the car on their white-knuckle drive. He thought it would be easy, considering the fact that he never wanted to see Fawn again for as long as he lived: he had intended to walk away from the car for a few steps, catch his breath, gather his thoughts and work out what he was going to tell Smiley when they got back. He had been fully committed to it, too, until he had stepped out of the car and seen that Fawn had had the same idea, eagerly scrambling out of the car and looking around himself with nothing to show for what he’d done apart from the self-satisfied smirk on his face.

To put it mildly, Guillam had momentarily lost his mind. Looking back, he had no idea how he had survived. He hadn’t even been fully aware of what he was doing until he had already done it, and by that point, had Fawn decided to react, it would probably already be too late for him. The fact that Fawn had therefore let him grab him by a fistful of his jacket and slam him against the car only enraged Guillam further, and for several seconds thereafter he could only shake the man and yell half-formed sentences at him that, in his anger, went nowhere. 

“You little – you god damn – you _insolent_ little – you crazy –”

Throughout the assault Fawn simply stood there, that grin glued to his face, showing no sign that he was in any way uncomfortable or unnerved by Guillam’s outburst. As quickly as he had grabbed him Guillam let him go, stepping away from him as though realising he had been shaking a baby; the amount of horror he felt was the same, even if it occurred in the same moment that he realised he was without any broken bones, and therefore Fawn must have decided to let him have that much.

“You don’t even _care_ ,” Guillam spat instead, finally finding his voice. “You broke that boy’s arms and you don’t even care. What the hell is wrong with you? Alright, he shouldn’t have been trying to steal. But what the fucking _hell_ is _wrong_ with you? Was dragging him alongside the car not enough? Did you have to go further? You’re insane. You should be out of a job. You’re a god damn liability. How the hell am I going to explain this to Smiley? Because you can bet your arse I’m telling him, Fawn. He’s been covering for you for long enough and I’m not going to let you pull the wool over his eyes anymore. You’re out of control, you’re wild, you’re _feral_ , you’re – can’t you listen to me? Are you even paying attention?”

In the middle of Guillam’s ranting Fawn had raised a small hand to his mouth and yawned. Guillam could barely believe the cheek of it. Not for the first time since he had been forced to spend such close quarters with Fawn, and certainly not for the first time that day, Guillam wished he could beat the hell out of him. It was the cruellest thing, that he had so much height on Fawn but knew he wouldn’t stand a chance. He was still trying to work out how he hadn’t been killed grabbing Fawn like that, and hated himself for marvelling over Fawn’s apparent mercy.

“You don’t give a damn, do you?” Guillam asked, when Fawn remained silent. “You couldn’t give a damn. I wonder if you’ll feel so confident when everyone else hears about this. You forget that you’re only out of my grasp while Smiley is making use of you. If you think you’re going to have a job at Brixton waiting for you after that, you have another thing coming.”

“Tragic,” Fawn said, bored. 

Guillam wanted to rant at him, wanted to yell at him until he finally got a reaction, but he knew it was useless. He didn’t know if Fawn didn’t believe him, or if he truly didn’t care at all, but whatever it was he knew it would be enough to withstand whatever Guillam could throw at him. He had felt disgusted by Fawn before, in flashes at ever increasing moments, but never before had it settled upon him like this. Fawn, with his unassuming frame and his sniggering and his grinning, with his unnecessary violence and his sadism – because that was what it was. Fawn had enjoyed breaking that boy’s arms, Fawn had _smiled_ as he had walked back to the car, the boy’s screams cutting through the air behind them. Suddenly it dawned on Guillam that he was out in the middle of nowhere with a sociopath; he wanted to leave him by the side of the road and hope the police found him and gave him what for, he wanted to drive back and find Smiley and ask him just what the bloody hell he had been thinking, bringing Fawn out here, letting Guillam spend so much time alone with the deranged little murderer. 

“Get in the car,” Guillam snapped, but Fawn had apparently decided that some punishment was due for Guillam’s earlier mistreatment of him, because his usual indifferent obedience was gone. He sniffed and scowled and then pushed himself away from the car, walking several paces away from it and wandering aimlessly around. Once again, Guillam fought the urge to leave him there.

“Fawn,” he said, warningly. “Get back in the car. Do not make me have to report to Smiley that you’ve gone completely off the rails. If he can’t trust you he’ll send you home.”

That at least seemed to get some kind of reaction from Fawn; he turned around quickly, his eyes narrowing a fraction. 

“Of course he can trust me,” he said, and whereas most people would probably elaborate on the statement Fawn remained silent, challenging Guillam with his eyes instead. 

“If you can’t follow orders, it won’t make you a very trustworthy person, will it?” Guillam asked, refusing to back down. “Get in the car.”

“He won’t care,” Fawn said, though he moved closer to the car, slinking slowly towards it like an animal, his eyes on Guillam at all times. “When you tell him what I did, he won’t care.”

“We’ll see about that.” Guillam tried to shake the feeling that the response was as good as a flustered mother telling her child to _wait until your father finds out_ , but ridiculous as it was, he couldn’t get rid of it. “Just get in the damn car.”

“He knows about me,” Fawn said, though what exactly their acting Chief knew about him, he didn’t say. “He won’t be shocked.”

“I couldn’t care less right now. All I care about is getting out of here before the police catch up to us. I would throw you at them without a moment’s hesitation.”

Fawn bared his teeth – it wasn’t a smile, Guillam realised. He was actually baring his teeth.

“I would like to see you try.”

Guillam didn’t grace that with a response. He marched back around the car and climbed in, waiting impatiently while Fawn took his sweet time in climbing into the passenger seat beside him. Guillam started the engine and thankfully the drive and the heat hadn’t completely wrecked it; the car started and saved Guillam from the difficult decision of how he would get away with killing Fawn if the two of them had to face spending the night stranded with one another. He pulled back out onto the road and tried to drive at a speed that wouldn’t draw attention. Beside him, Fawn muttered constantly under his breath with barely a pause for air, though what he was saying, Guillam couldn’t hear.


End file.
